| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: admit, it is different. For these I recognise the necessity of a
capital[10] to begin with. I am not, however, without good hope that
the citizens of this state will contribute heartily to such an object,
when I reflect on the large sums subscribed by the state on various
late occasions, as, for instance, when reinforcements were sent to the
Arcadians under the command of Lysistratus,[11] and again at the date
of the generalship of Hegesileos.[12] I am well aware that ships of
war are frequently despatched and that too[13] although it is
uncertain whether the venture will be for the better or for the worse,
and the only certainty is that the contributor will not recover the
sum subscribed nor have any further share in the object for which he
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: "Eh!" said the old man. "That's so--that's a
good comparison. You're not so--"
"And now this Ostrog--has suddenly revolutionised
the world by waking the Sleeper--whom no one
but the superstitious, common people had ever dreamt
would wake again--raising the Sleeper to claim his
property from the Council, after all these years."
The old man endorsed this statement with a cough.
"It's strange," he said, "to meet a man who learns
these things for the first time tonight."
"Aye," said Graham, "it's strange."
When the Sleeper Wakes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: "fearless" Austrian officer, departed from Galicia, and without
going near his native place, where the odious lawsuit was still
going on, proceeded straight to Warsaw and entered the army of
the newly constituted Polish kingdom under the sceptre of
Alexander I., Autocrat of all the Russias.
This kingdom, created by the Vienna Congress as an acknowledgment
to a nation of its former independent existence, included only
the central provinces of the old Polish patrimony. A brother of
the Emperor, the Grand Duke Constantine (Pavlovitch), its Viceroy
and Commander-in-Chief, married morganatically to a Polish lady
to whom he was fiercely attached, extended this affection to what
Some Reminiscences |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: polished with my file, a paper pellet, a little ball of thread. In
order to discover if the Thomisus is capable of a similar error, I
gathered some broken pieces of silk-worm's cocoon into a closed
cone, turning the fragments so as to bring the smoother and more
delicate inner surface outside. My attempt was unsuccessful. When
removed from her home and placed on the artificial wallet, the
mother Thomisus obstinately refused to settle there. Can she be
more clear-sighted than the Lycosa? Perhaps so. Let us not be too
extravagant with our praise, however; the imitation of the bag was
a very clumsy one.
The work of laying is finished by the end of May, after which,
The Life of the Spider |
